York City man charged with beating death of his girlfriend

A York City man accused of beating his girlfriend to death at their home over the weekend is behind bars after police arrested him on Tuesday.

Jermaine Stanford Taylor, 23, of 220 S. West St., is charged with homicide in connection with the death of girlfriend Billie Jo Bratton, 34, of the same address, according to York City Police.

Taylor was denied bail when he was arraigned at the county's central booking unit Tuesday night and is being held in York County Prison.

He denied to officers that he knows how Bratton suffered the injuries that led to her death.

But as he was being taken to central booking, he told two detectives, "If I did it, I didn't mean to. Do you think it would help me if I tell the judge I didn't mean to do it?," according to his charging documents.

Taylor called 911: Officers were sent to the home about 1:30 p.m. Sunday for an apparent drug overdose after Taylor called 911, said Capt. Russell Tschopp.

Bratton was found on the second floor of the home and was taken to York Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, Tschopp said.

"They (hospital staff) couldn't revive her, and they also noticed at that point that she had a lot of trauma on her body," Tschopp said.

According to the charging documents, Bratton suffered injuries that included blunt force trauma to her head, which caused her brain to hemorrhage; multiple broken ribs and bruises and abrasions on her hip, neck, knees, legs and right shoulder, the documents state.

Autopsy: At the order of the York County Coroner's Office, a autopsy was performed at Allentown's Lehigh Valley Hospital on Tuesday. Results showed that Bratton died of blunt force trauma and her death was ruled a homicide, police said.

The autopsy also found that Bratton suffered the injuries within 24 hours of her death, documents state.

Police interview: In an interview with police, Taylor said Bratton was fine when the couple went to sleep about midnight on Saturday, documents state.

When he tried to wake her up after he woke up about 10:30 a.m. Sunday, he was unsuccessful. Taylor told police that he tried to revive her by putting her in a bathtub of cold water, documents state.

When that didn't work, he called 911, documents state.

However, Taylor couldn't explain to investigators why three hours had passed between the time he woke up to find Bratton unresponsive and when he called police at 1:30 p.m., documents state.

He also couldn't explain how Bratton suffered the injuries. They were the only two people in the home Saturday night, documents state.

Other calls: According to the documents, Taylor made two other phone calls before he called 911.

At 10:38 a.m., he called a woman and told her Bratton had been taken to the hospital for a drug overdose on Saturday. He called the woman back about 12:50 p.m. — about 40 minutes before he called 911 — telling her Bratton had died and that he needed a ride from the house, documents state.

Anyone with information about Bratton's death is asked to call city detectives at (717) 849-2219, or call the city's anonymous crime tip line, (717) 849-2204. Or anonymously text a tip to YORKTIPS at 847411.